“Quarter of new Thuringian teachers are lateral entrants amid shortage”

Erfurt (dpa/th) – Of the teachers who were hired for an unlimited period in Thuringia in the first half of the school year, about a quarter were lateral entrants. This emerges from figures from the Ministry of Education, which are available to the German Press Agency. According to this, between the beginning of the school year in August 2022 and the end of the school semester in February of this year, 639 teachers were newly and permanently employed. Of them, 162 have a different professional background and came to the Thuringian school service as lateral entrants.

Like other federal states, Thuringia is struggling with a teacher shortage that has been increasing for years. The hiring figures prove this: In the entire 2021/2022 school year, fewer teachers could be hired on a permanent basis than teachers left the school service – for example to retire. 1059 new hires faced 1073 departures.

The state is trying to get the teacher shortage under control with a number of measures – for example with the reintroduction of civil servants for teachers, bonuses for teachers with sought-after subject combinations or teaching in regions with a particularly large shortage. There are also teacher recruitment campaigns and better salaries for elementary and mainstream teachers. Minister of Education Helmut Holter (left) has been emphasizing for years to pull out all the stops when recruiting teachers.

Regarding the current figures for the first half of the school year, Holter told the dpa: “The recruitment of originally trained teachers remains a major challenge, which we continue to successfully face.” In his view, the hiring figures “at a consistently high level” are the next step in success. “Looking at the staff who are leaving, however, it also shows that great efforts are still required to master the personnel upheaval in the education system,” says Holter.

According to a forecast by the Ministry of Education, a total of 939 teachers will have left the school by the end of the current school year. According to this, around 300 teachers still have to be hired by then. Of the teachers hired in the first half of the school year, 137 went to primary schools and 159 to mainstream schools. 138 new colleagues were hired at Thuringian grammar schools, ten at comprehensive schools and 69 at community schools. There were 89 new hires at vocational schools and 37 at special schools and joint classes.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:230522-99-778182/2